Reflections: Extended Journeys
by AlaskanFan
Summary: This is a prologue and an extended tag for "Our Man in Tegernsee" - Season 2.


**Reflections: Extended Journeys** \- by AlaskanFan

I created REFLECTIONS as a short story format to combine bits of personal history with episode fillers. There are enticing glimpses of Lee's past throughout the series but writing stories about Lee solo (before Amanda) just isn't much fun – thus, the blend of canon and memories in REFLECTIONS. This story features memories from The First Time.

This is a prologue and an extended tag for "Our Man in Tegernsee" - Season 2

With thanks to Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner for creating such memorable characters.

 **Prologue**

The room was full of heightened emotions and cigarette smoke, and Lee's eyes felt like they had been rubbed with sandpaper. He had been pulled from a deep sleep, _and_ a much-anticipated long weekend with a beautiful and willing woman, by an abrupt summons to the office. He had driven 5 hours to attend one tense meeting at the Agency, spent a dozen hours in airports and planes, and had only enough time to splash water on his face before attending another tense meeting at the Munich Police Department. His diplomatic skills were waning rapidly because he was dog-tired.

Amanda's arrest for passing counterfeit money had abruptly escalated a simmering investigation into an issue of utmost urgency. Germany's polite inquiries about recent problems with counterfeit American dollars had been shuffled from one bureaucrat to another in Washington, and German tempers were beginning to suspect the worst about their inability to get answers. Lee knew that Harry Hollinger, the Agency's local man, should have been in this meeting as part of the solution, but instead Harry appeared to be a primary part of the problem. This was both personally and professionally embarrassing.

"Thank you, Herr Stetson. You have been most helpful. Until this meeting, we were unsure whether the United States government was aware of this counterfeit scheme. Some in our department," he glanced significantly at Lt. Volkenaur, "thought perhaps your government had instigated it. Your evident willingness to assist us with our mutual problem has answered those concerns quite satisfactorily." The firm assertion by the Polizeidirektor was intended to quell any objections. The participants tidied their papers and stood as the tense meeting came to a close. There was a representative from the Federal Criminal Police Office, an executive from the Bundesbank, the Polizeidirektor for the Bavarian state, and the Bavarian Polizeikomissar who was leading the investigation, Lt. Deiter Volkenaur. Lee felt pummeled as the four Germans had demanded answers he didn't have.

"I only wish I had more answers to give you. Before I return to the States, I assure you that I will get the answers we both need." Lee Stetson stood, and offered his hand to Director Ludewig. The men shook hands firmly, sealing the trust between the two nations.

"Very good. Now, just two more items of business: Herr Hollinger and Frau King. Should they be told of your involvement in this investigation?" The flutter of leave-taking was halted as the final details were settled.

"Harry should definitely _not_ be told that I have joined your investigation. Whether he is guilty or innocent, I do not want him to be _en guard_ against me." Lee's instincts told him that Harry was in the scheme up to his neck, but his loyalty to an old friend held a meager hope that Harry was somehow oblivious to the crime, or was being blackmailed. Blackmail wouldn't excuse his offense, but it was slightly better than outright treachery. He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. The more he heard, the more he was convinced that Harry was as guilty as sin.

"And, Frau King?" the Director prompted as he pushed his chair under the table.

"No. No, Amanda shouldn't know the extent of this meeting or my official involvement with you. I wouldn't want to prejudice her against Harry. I'll tell her only what is necessary as the situation evolves."

"You do not feel it necessary to warn her about Herr Hollinger?" The prickly Lt. Volkenaur spoke sharply. "A desperate man is unpredictable and he may become a danger to her." The man's persistent distrust had bordered on rudeness. Polizeidirektor Ludewig had restrained his subordinate more than once, but Lee knew that he would have to work with the man, so he tried to lighten the atmosphere with his assurance.

Lee chuckled, "Not Harry, trust me. I know him well enough to be sure about that. He's not one to threaten innocent lives. If he becomes desperate, he'll throw all of his fear and anger against me. Amanda will be in no danger." Lee was grateful for the Director's support once again; he watched as the Lieutenant was overruled by his superior's stern glare and raised eyebrow.

"Then, it is settled," acceded Lt. Volkenaur. "I will instruct the local Munich police to process her release and they will discuss the charges and conditions of her release with both of you. It will be easier for our working relationship if I do at least seem to meet you in Frau King's presence, but I will do that once you leave the building. That will keep the meeting brief and casual, leaving you to inform Frau King as you judge best. We will alert you when the paperwork has been processed and then take you to Frau King."

Lee scrubbed his face with both hands as the room emptied and he was left with the now tepid remains of his coffee and a full ashtray in the center of the small table. He slumped in his chair, wishing futilely for six solid hours of sleep. Despite his best intentions, the frustrations of the past 24 hours were screaming for release. If he could just get Amanda out of here, maybe he could get some answers. He would have to start with Harry.

"Herr Stetson, you may see Frau King now. Please follow me." Lee must have dozed for a few minutes because Lt. Volkenaur had startled him. He rubbed his eyes, then followed the inspector along a corridor and down some stairs to a security station in the detention area. Before leaving Lee with the guard on duty, the German leaned close and said quietly, but clearly, "I will be watching you _most carefully_." The implied threat caused Lee's irritations to boil over and, regrettably, he spewed them all at Amanda.

OXOXOXOXO

 **After Words**

Forty-eight hours later, the counterfeit ring had been busted and Harry's role as conspirator was confirmed. Lee and Amanda were booked on a 2:00 flight out of Munich and they would be back on the east coast in time for dinner. He was pleased that Amanda had showed no desire to prolong her stay by having dinner with the inspector. He wouldn't be able to relax until he had returned her to American soil.

"Let's get far away, fast, so that he can't think of one more question," Amanda's tense suggestion was tinged with amusement. "I _have_ to get away from Police headquarters. I've spent too much of my 'free vacation' in that place."

"Let's catch this tram and have an early lunch before going to the airport. There's a biergarten just beyond our hotel and you didn't get to enjoy the festival yesterday. A visit to Germany wouldn't be complete without sampling the local specialties." The solid clouds began scattering and shafts of sunshine brightened the city as they rode the tram. The biergarten had few patrons this early and Lee chose a sunlit table. He selected one of their specialty beers – Augustiner Dunkles, a malty dark brew that had long been his favorite in Munich. Over a lunch of smoked pork chops, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, Lee told Amanda the rest of the story about this investigation.

"Harry and Dave Benson worked together on an Iraqi operation in early 1983. The job was botched badly and the debriefing couldn't determine whether Davy or Harry was more to blame. In the end, they were reassigned separately without disciplinary action and Harry was sent to Munich. Since the early 1960s, the Agency has had an agent in Munich to handle joint investigations in central Europe. It's generally a plum assignment for senior agents who are nearing retirement. Harry believed it was punishment duty, and perhaps that was the voice of a guilty conscience. When Davy was uncovered as a mole last Spring, I had hoped that _he_ was the primary problem in Iraq and that Harry had been set up by Davy. Now it seems that both of them had been turned." Lee's agitation was evident as he gestured with his hands. Even the way he chewed indicated his heightened emotions.

"How awful! If you can't trust your colleagues, a dangerous job just gets more dangerous!" Amanda could see that Harry's betrayal affected Lee deeply. She shook her hair away from her face as a slight breeze ruffled her curls.

"Yeah, I've trusted both Davy and Harry with my life more than once." The muscles in his cheek bulged as he shook his head regretfully. "I _hate_ to investigate my colleagues. This is the second one this year I've busted." He banged his fist on the sturdy table. "It damages morale in the entire department. Traitors make it hard to trust anyone." He added another dollop of mustard to his pork.

"Trust may be the most important asset in a partnership. Once it's lost, it would be impossible to work together. Having a reputation as being untrustworthy would ruin an agent's career." Amanda was aware of many marriages which had been ruined when trust was destroyed. At least she and Joe still trusted each other, even if their marriage had not been successful in other ways.

"That's the truth! The more I tried to defend Harry or to suggest other explanations for the counterfeiting, the more suspicious Volkenaur became of _me_. It's so easy to lose your reputation when you are associated with a traitor." The taint of distrust had been like a burr under a saddle. It was hard to work with the inspector when it was obvious that he suspected Lee of collusion with Harry.

"If he was posted to Munich, why did he live in Tegernsee?"

"Cost of living, supposedly; you know, small town versus crowded city. In mid-Summer, Harry asked to move to Tegernsee. It's not far from Munich and has good access to surrounding nations and international airports, so it wasn't a _bad_ idea but it didn't _sound_ true. Billy's been wanting to get me over here to check up on Harry for a few months. When we got Haddy Kemp out, Harry was attending a conference in Switzerland, so the timing didn't work out." Lee swallowed the last of his beer. "I wonder now whether Harry's absence at that time was deliberate."

"I had assumed that Lt. Volkenaur was with the Munich local police, but when Harry challenged him about being out of his jurisdiction, I started to realize that he was a special officer investigating the counterfeiting operation. He must have been following us when Harry shot Mueller. And then he was able to take charge of the murder and our statements in the _Tegernsee_ police office. Ordinary police from _Munich_ would have to submit to the local authorities, not take over the whole station."

" _You_ have a very logical mind. Harry's drinking has sabotaged his ability to think." Lee counted the following points on his fingers. "First, as you pointed out, busting the counterfeiting ring would have made him a hero, but Harry conspired with them. Second, he was too confused by the alcohol to notice that Volkenaur was no ordinary policeman, which was obvious to you. And third, he underestimated how much you would understand about counterfeiting or he wouldn't have talked so much. You really surprised him when you asked about special paper and ink. You solved the puzzle faster than Harry could cover it up." Lee smiled proudly across the table.

"Ooh, I just realized this! When Harry said he had called someone to get Mueller's address, he probably called Mueller to warn him we were coming. Mueller was running from us, even before we arrived at his house. And then he was hiding in the barn and came out to shoot you. Someone must have told him who you are." She gestured triumphantly as she shared her discovery.

"Very good, Amanda!" His smile of approval was even broader now.

"Le-ee, I just listened and paid attention." Amanda blushed at his compliment. She was able to analyze the events in hindsight, but she didn't think she had been very useful in solving the case, except for talking to Gunter. The sunlight through the leaves of the hanging baskets dappled her face and shone in her hair. "I felt responsible for the whole mess until I started suspecting Harry of not being truthful with us. The way he dismissed your lead about Portillo, and then tried to keep you from calling Billy... well, all of that just didn't sound right." The diamond solitaire at her throat winked in the sunlight.

"I thought the same thing. Rather than calling Billy, I called Volkenaur to bring some back-up to the sawmill. A small town like that doesn't have a SWAT team and there were already two of their officers investigating the 'devastating effects' of our breakfast shooting. He had to direct a team from Munich to meet us at the site. I felt pretty lonely rolling in the sawdust by myself. I was relieved when they finally showed up."

"I _knew_ I should have gone. You were out there without any back-up." Amanda twisted her napkin as she fretted that she hadn't done the right thing for Lee. She had trusted Harry because she thought _Lee_ trusted Harry. She should have followed her instincts and insisted on going with the men to the sawmill.

"If you had gone with us, Harry would have used you as a hostage, just as he tried to do at the festival. I thought I knew him, but he gave a new meaning to the term 'low-life.' No, Amanda, you were safest among a large group of people, and I had arranged back-up. Let's retrieve our bags from the hotel and head to the airport. I'll be glad to leave this fiasco behind." Lee's dejection was evident in his tired posture and his voice. Despite solving the case, there had been more loss than triumph.

As they emerged from the biergarten onto the sidewalk, Amanda cast about for a more cheerful topic. Hmm... a successful endeavor... trust fulfilled rather than betrayed.

"You've never told me how you found me at Moby's Dock that first day we met."

Lee glanced at her from the corner of his eye as he put his arm at the small of her back to guide her along the busy sidewalk. He pulled her close so they could talk without shouting. "You're doing such a good job with analysis, you tell me how I found you." He had stopped being surprised by how well she could piece together clues. He used to get annoyed by her rambling, but now he recognized it as the process of systemic thinking. She valued the big picture and could see relationships that weren't apparent at first glance. To a linear thinker, her perspective was messy – filled with clutter. But her way of thinking had solved cases and provided fresh perspective on many occasions. It took several months, but he had learned to follow her thought process instead of being impatient with it.

When she had first asked that question at the costume party, all she got was the mysterious answer "we have our ways." During the next several days, she had tried to figure it out and then made herself stop thinking about it. She couldn't come up with any new explanations and she was becoming paranoid that someone was secretly watching her all the time. Then, she became so busy thinking about other cases and even stranger circumstances that being tracked to Moby's Dock didn't seem very important, or even very strange!

"You didn't know my name, and I know I didn't show you any identification." Despite having abandoned the question, all of the old explanations came back in an instant. "I was wearing gloves, so you couldn't have gotten any fingerprints, and I wouldn't have showed up in a fingerprint registry anyway. By the time I returned from my round-trip to Union Station, the Alexandria Station was calm, so I don't think you followed me to my car then. You couldn't have been staking out every fast food joint in town waiting for a busy mother to take her kids for a treat. You didn't even know I had kids!"

Lee chuckled at her thorough list of dead-ends. "You know how well our sketch artists can produce a portrait based on a description," he hinted.

"Yes, but I don't go to the train station often enough for anyone there to identify me. You might find people who had seen me, but that wouldn't have been very helpful. The only person I spoke to was the conductor." Amanda's head turned sharply to look at Lee as she suddenly knew the answer. She gripped his forearm in excitement. "My check! That's it! I paid for the on-board ticket with a check since I didn't have enough cash to pay the fare. That gave you my name and address."

"Right. I had put you on the Virgina commuter line which Guthrie used regularly. It took only one phone call to learn when that train would return to Union Station. I was able to get chewed out by Internal Affairs, clean up, and change clothes before interviewing the conductor. I not only learned your address, but I also learned," he looked at her along his shoulder and raised his eyebrows suggestively, "that you announced to a train car full of Shriners that you were wearing only a _nightgown_ under your coat. I expect you gave the old fellows sweet dreams for weeks afterward as they imagined nightgown clad women appearing to them in the most provocative places." Lee grinned broadly as he spoke that last sentence. He remembered several pleasant and steamy dreams of his own featuring those almond shaped eyes and lace-trimmed nightgowns.

She elbowed him gently in the ribs in return for his teasing, and ducked her head shyly. This was the first time he had mentioned her attire at the train station, and she had hoped he hadn't noticed. If she had known how busy her morning would be, she would have dressed before taking Dean to the train station. She hadn't expected to get out of her car, much less travel to Union Station and back, before driving home again. If Dean hadn't expected her to walk with him to the train, she might have returned home without any adventures shaking up her life.

"But my home address wouldn't have taken you to Moby's Dock. Were you following me?"

"Right again. I got to your house in time to see you backing out of your driveway. I followed you to the school carpool line, the football team's photo shoot and finally to Moby's Dock." She raised her eyebrows and nodded to show that she was impressed with his tenacity and his memory. "I thought I might have to wait until you went home again, because I needed a reasonable excuse to approach you in public. The manager at that particular Moby's Dock owed me a favor and was willing to loan me a waiter's uniform. They delayed your order until I was ready to go. Did you know that those eyepatches are actually transparent? It's hazardous to limit the depth perception of your entire staff."

"It's a good thing that Philip and Jamie's team was scheduled first for the photographer. Otherwise, I might not have been home in time to call you before your 5:00 costume party."

"I was under tremendous pressure to get that information back. If you hadn't called by 5:00, I would have come to your house again."

The hotel was in sight and the friends fell silent as memories of that first encounter flickered through their minds. The new topic had the desired effect. The bitter aftertaste of betrayal had been tempered with a spoonful of loyalty. Lee's thoughts had instantly produced a dozen memories of times that Amanda had held his life in her hands, and had proven eminently trustworthy. Similarly, Amanda was aware of several occasions when Lee had relentlessly followed small clues to track her down and come to her rescue. The quiet companionship was interrupted by the business of claiming luggage from the front desk, hailing a taxi, and taking the next steps on the journey home.

 **The End**

 **Author's Notes:**

1\. The episode aired in November, but it was filmed in late summer. I doubt divers would be exploring Tegernsee in November, so I kept the late summer weather, rather than adjusting to the air date of the episode.

2\. Using the clues in the episode, I decided on the following timeline:

A) Amanda arrived in Germany late Thursday evening. She delivered the envelope as soon as possible on Friday morning and then did a bit of shopping. By 11:00, she had been detained for using counterfeit money and she had called Billy. With a 6 hour time difference, it was 5:00 a.m. in Washington D.C. (She could have been detained an hour earlier, but not much later than 11:00 for Lee to claim "middle of the night.")

B) Lee was in the Poconos with Jillian and he claims he was awakened in the middle of the night at the start of a _long_ weekend during his tirade to Amanda. This assumes that the long weekend started Thursday night. Being called at 5:00 a.m. could count as the middle of the night, or perhaps the times could shift an hour earlier with Amanda being detained by 10:00 and Billy/Lee notified around 4:00 a.m. (Amanda had to have time to shop in two stores, so it had to be at least late enough for shops to be open and then the delay for the police to be notified, arrive at the shop, transit to jail, processing at the jail, questioning, etc.)

C) Lee drove 5 hours to the Agency (assuming he needed to pack etc.), met for some period of time with Billy and others(11:00ish?), and then spent 12 hours in airports and in the air. (His flight was 9 hours and 45 minutes, plus there would be some check-in time even before the days of TSA security lines.) With a 6 hour difference, a 2:00 p.m. flight from D.C. would arrive in Munich at 6:00 a.m.

D) I am convinced that Lee was fully briefed on the counterfeiting operation (which Harry should have solved long before Lee showed up) prior to his picking up Amanda from the jail cell. She only spent one night in jail, and she called Dotty early enough to wake her up, so that phone call was probably made before noon in Munich on Saturday (possibly as early as 10 or 11-ish). I'm also _quite sure_ that Lee would have wasted no time getting Amanda out of jail, so there would have been no delays as he raced to the rescue.

E) Lee and Amanda drove 45 minutes to Tegernsee and then another 30 minutes looking around the town for Harry before finding him at the restaurant. They went back to Harry's to explain the situation and Harry got drunk and passed out. Except for Lee arriving in Germany, being briefed on the case, and getting Amanda out of jail, not much happened on Saturday.

F) The bulk of the action occurred on Sunday – the shooting at breakfast, the interviews with the divers at the lake and Gunter at the ski lodge, the shooting at the barn, the visit to the Tegernsee police office, the investigation in Bad Tolz, the set-up at the sawmill and the finale at the festival.

G) Thus the tag was on Monday, three days after Amanda expected to be home. Amanda was confused about the time zone differences ("dinner... or, um,... breakfast... but at home"), but I wanted to be sure to get her home in time for dinner.


End file.
